The People's Tradition In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

That was their type of tradition that they would do every year, they would stone someone picked from the black box to death for no specific reason. I understand that this is a specific tradition that they had but they still can't kill people for no reason this is a type of human sacrifice because these people didn't do anything harmful to the village so why kill them for no reason, also if you think of Mr. Summers, his name sounds like he's a very joyful and happy man when on the other hand he's not because he still takes place in the sacrifice and he's still the person running it. The NYTimes article is also very related to this story because the article talks about human sacrifice also and how most of the workers here in the UAE work very hard for their jobs but don't get paid enough money when they work hard and especially the constructioneers who work day and night to build these buildings and stay in the heat all day but don't get paid enough money that they deserve from their jobs and their work. This is a type of human sacrifice but not like the one mentioned in the story, in the story people get physically beaten by the rocks but in this article they get hurt but not by anything they get hurt by not earning their enough

    "The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice.  The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens.  On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate.  Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice.  Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about.  Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective

Tradition is a large part of life today, but decades ago it was almost a way of life and if it was not followed there were stiff consequences. The story is misleading by the title because of the normal thought of a lottery is something positive or a giveaway. The story is quite the opposite of the common thought. The main point that Jackson shows in “The Lottery” is that people can be involved with such a violent act and think nothing of it. In the story all the people are happy, “they stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.”(Jackson 124). The tradition the village seams at first to be a happy scene, but later learn that it is a terrible event that is a

When talking about communities that have given up the tradition of choosing one person to stone to death, "Old Man Warner snorted, 'Pack of crazy fools' he said. 'Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more,

Only when we are introduced to Old Man Warner, the only man in the village old enough to remember some of the traditions, do we get an idea of the purpose of the lottery. It seems to be a pagan harvest ritual, as expressed by his old saying: ??Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon?? (Jackson 369). By participating in the lottery the villages crops will prove to be bountiful. He justifies the use of the lottery simply by stating ?There?s always been a lottery? (Jackson 369).

In “The Lottery”, the downfall of the townspeople is following tradition. It is mentioned several times that many details of the lottery's ritual have been lost, but the lottery itself remains. Jackson writes, “no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.” Old Man Warner scolds some of the townspeople, calling them

In The Lottery, Shirley explores traditional custom missions and the reason we pass on the legacy to the new generations. As her story describes, families of a small village always gather about the 27th of June each year to attend a town meeting, called the lottery. The old man, Mr. Summer, would “carry the black wooden box” (Shirley 217), to the meeting and distributes the paper ticket to every family while supposedly perform a recital, but people soon forgot how the recital is performed a changed the official rule; whoever has a dot on their pieces of paper will win the lottery. Strangely, the town people do not properly follow the tradition, yet they mindlessly maintain the lottery. Moreover,

This is shown on page 28 line 408-410 when the text says “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” This tells the reader that the villagers did remember that they had to throw stones at the person who drew the paper with the dot. Plus, on page 27 line 382-384 Old Man Warner is saying “‘It’s not the way it used to be.’ Old Man Warner said clearly. ‘People ain’t the way they used to be.’” This shows that Old Man Warner, the man who has been in the most lotteries (77 lotteries) has noticed a change in the attitude and general view of the lottery. Another piece of evidence showing that there are parts of the lottery the townspeople have forgotten is on page 17-18 line 119-133. The narrator is telling the reader about how there used to be a salute, song, and a dance, as well as other traditions that used to go along with the lottery, but they were allowed to die of with time. This is most likely because the townspeople slowly forgot about them, and now they only have the lottery. Plus, they don’t use wood chips anymore. On page--- line--- it says that Mr. Summers convinced everyone to use paper slips instead of wood ones because of the growing

A symbol of the lottery's ongoing legacy, the same box has been used for years. It was believed to be made from scraps of the original black box which fell apart through the course of its use. When the citizens are brought the idea that the box should be changed, the whole thing was let to pass. "Mr. Summers," the town's lottery official, "spoke frequently about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much as tradition as was represented by the black box." (Jackson 422) This illustrates the people are blind to the idea of even tampering with their sacred box. They have grown with the tradition and find discomfort in the idea of change. "Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done." (Jackson 422) With the keyword "allowed," it illustrates the people's reaction by ignorance. Every year the suggestion is made, and every year the suggestion is purposely disregarded for the sake that their tradition be unchanged. There is a sense that should the box be changed, so should the lottery and it's purpose. "Some places already quit lotteries," Mrs. Adams said. "Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly, "Pack of young fools." (Jackson 425) This illustrates the beliefs of a majority. Old Man Warner being the oldest man in the town was looked upon

On this day every year "the people of the village began to gather in the square, around ten o'clock" (Jackson) to prepare for the stoning. This event would take about "two hours as there were only about three hundred people" (Jackson). Men, women and children participated in this tradition of stoning. It was a very simple plan as to who would be stoned to death. It consisted on the exact number of people in the village as to how many

As once said by Gustav Mahler “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” This saying relates to “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson because it talks about tradition and the purpose of the story is blindly following tradition. There are many reasons why the purpose of the lottery is following tradition. One of them is because it has been around for a while, so people have been doing it for many years. The second reason is that people had to participate but for some it wasn’t too important, which means they didn’t really care about it.

The lottery in “The Lottery” is not a lottery for great winnings with one winner; it is a lottery for life with one loser. The lottery is a long standing tradition in the village. Old Man Warner recalls “Seventy-seventh year I have been in the lottery.” (Jackson in Kennedy and Gioia, p. 254) Though “much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded,” (Jackson in Kennedy and Gioia, p. 252). Mr. Summers, the administrator of the lottery, gives directions to the nervous participants; “Now, I’ll read the names-heads of families first-and the men come up and take a paper out of the box.

One can understand how traditions are easily lost through the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another. Traditions that lose their meaning due to human forgetfulness can cause dreadful consequences to occur. Although "the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original box, they still remembered to use stones" to kill the forgetful woman.

The story “The Lottery” is about a small paganistic town with at least one tradition that definitely would stick out in today's society. In 1948 Shirley Jackson wrote the story “The Lottery”. If you take account for what time period this story was written in you will notice how society has greatly changed from the 1940s to today. Granted, people today are still set in their ways, but now people are more willing to drift away from their family traditions. “The Lottery” is still relevant in today’s society.

The idea of winning a lottery is associated with luck, happiness and anticipation of good things. In Shirley Jackson's story, " The Lottery", this is not the case. The irony of the story is that the winner of the lottery gets stoned to death by everyone else in the town. The story is very effective because it examines certain aspects of human nature.